🍎 Partnering with Orchards

About this simulation

A pollination contract is a trade: the grower needs enough foraging bees on receptive blossom at the right moment to set a full crop, and the beekeeper needs colonies that come home strong and unharmed. This orchard shows both sides at once — rows of trees in bloom, hives placed by the grower's plan, and bees flying real foraging routes whose success shows up as fruit forming on the branch.

How it works

• Colony strength sets how many foragers each hive can field — weak colonies (few frames of bees) cover blossom poorly even in perfect conditions.
• Bloom–bee sync is how well the contracted delivery date matches peak bloom; hives arriving too early or late catch fewer receptive flowers.
• Hive placement compares dropping every pallet at the orchard gate against spreading small groups through the rows — bees rarely forage far, so distant rows under edge-clustering set noticeably less fruit.
• Spray events show why contracts specify notice periods: with 48h warning the beekeeper can close or move hives before the tractor runs; without notice, foragers caught mid-flight are lost and colony strength drops for the rest of the bloom.

Controls

• Colony strength — frames of bees per hive (4–20).
• Bloom–bee sync — how closely hive delivery matches peak bloom (20–100%).
• Hive placement — edge-clustered vs. distributed through the rows.
• Spray programme + Run spray event — trigger a spray pass with or without advance bee notice.
• ↺ Reset orchard — restores full bloom and undoes losses. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.

Did you know?

Almond growers in California contract well over two million honeybee colonies every February — the largest managed pollination event on Earth — almost entirely because almonds have no other reliable pollinator at that bloom density and timing.